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She was only a few feet from the top of the bow when she seemed totire.
Nick’s head appeared over the side. He reached out a hand. “Come on, Julia. Your sister’swaiting.”
She resumed the climb, hanging when she was within reach of Nick’s hand, then reaching out forit.
“I’ve got you,” he said, hauling her onboard.
Ronan dumped his dive equipment and grabbed the rope. When he climbed aboard the Elysium, the others had already put on the thin, rubber-soled dive shoes Braden had packed in the waterproof pouch at hisside.
He handed a pair toRonan.
He slipped them on. They would be safer than bare feet and provide better grip, but they’d also allow them to move quietly on theship.
Braden reached into the bag he’d carried through the water and removed their weapons. He quickly handed them each a gun, keeping the additional equipment for him and Nick, who would be dealing with the guards while Julia and Ronan looked forElise.
“Everybody set?” Ronanasked.
Theynodded.
“See you on the flip side,” Braden said, movingstarboard.
Nick started along the port side of the boat, weapon drawn. Ronan moved with Julia into position behindhim.
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Julia steppedbehind Ronan into an unlit room at one side of the boat. When her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she saw that the shadows lurking at the edges of the room were exercise equipment — treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes — plus a few weightmachines.
They’d left Nick on the stern after he’d dispatched one of the guards with a quick hit of his gun to the man’s head followed by a bullet, muffled by the weapon’ssilencer.
Nick had thrown him over the side of the boat with a surprising lack of fanfare and waved Ronan and Juliabelowdeck.
They’d moved through an empty but luxurious lounge area before ducking into the exercise room. So far the boat was oddly silent — no music, no crowds, and no guards, none but the one Nick had killed at the rear of the boat and whoever Braden had encountered on the otherside.
Ronan waved her forward toward a door at one end of the exercise room. She called up the images of the boat’s interior and thought the door led to a hall that would take them farther belowdeck to the sleepingcabins.
Ronan kept his weapon in position and pulled open the door. She expected to move in behind him, then heard the muffled thump of his silencer. When she looked around his broad shoulders, a large man in black was slumped on the floor of the hall, a smear of blood almost blending into the wallpaper behindhim.
“Cover me,” Ronan said, bending to grasp the dead man under thearmpits.
Julia stepped in front of him and raised her weapon while Ronan dragged the man into a bathroom as big as Julia’s apartment inBoston.
He stepped back into the hall and shut the door. “Let’s keepmoving.”
They moved slowly down the hall, Ronan in the lead, weapon drawn. They passed a sauna, a media room, and what looked like a small spa, complete with two massagetables.
Julia was bothered by the silence. It felt wrong somehow, like they were on an empty boat drifting through an alternate universe where no one existed in the world butthem.
Murmured voices rose at the end of the hall, and Ronan waved her back against the wall, both of themlistening.
The voices were coming from a room up ahead, one they would have to pass to get to the sleeping cabins, and Ronan held up a hand, indicating that she should stay put while he checked itout.
She watched as Ronan approached the room at the end of the hall, her weapon slick in her hand, sweat coating thegrip.
He stopped at the edge of the doorway, then leaned in to get a look. She held her breath and a moment later he waved herforward.
She moved quietly down the hall, grateful for the dive shoes. She couldn’t resist a glance as she slipped past the partially open door, but once she’d looked, she wished shehadn’t.
The room was some kind of computer center, large displays ticking down the time while in one corner dollar values rose next to asset numbers. Three men manned the screens, their backs turned to the door while they tapped at keyboards and touch screens and murmured into theirheadsets.
